Austin council may put domestic partner insurance issue on ballot

Domestic partner insurance debatedAustin council may put issue on the May 13 ballot

Associated Press

Published 6:30 am, Thursday, February 2, 2006

AUSTIN - Some members of the Austin City Council want to put to voters a proposition that would extend health benefits to city employees' gay or straight partners.

Council member Brewster McCracken called for repealing an existing prohibition on offering partner benefits. The proposal for the May 13 ballot would extend coverage to either a domestic partner or a family member living with a city employee.

"This is about principle, about correcting something that has been unfair," McCracken said.

The City Council approved offering domestic partner benefits in 1993.

But the policy lasted only nine months until a citizen vote overturned it by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent.

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A group named Concerned Texans led the campaign to overturn the benefits, criticizing them as financially irresponsible and domestic partners as immoral.

Dallas and Travis County are the only two local governments in Texas to offer domestic partner benefits, said Chuck Smith of the advocacy group Equity Texas. Travis County, which is home to Austin, last year overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 2, a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Statewide, the proposition passed by a more than 3-to-1 margin.

A majority of the City Council would have to approve putting the issue to a citywide vote. Of the council's seven members, four have said they would support some sort of coverage for domestic partners and others.

Council member Danny Thomas, a mayoral candidate in the May election, said he would not support the proposition because the 1994 election settled the issue.

Thomas was the only council member to support the state gay marriage ban.